The present invention is directed to a furniture joint attachment bracket and more particularly to a bracket used with a furniture angle brace to secure two side apron members and a leg of furniture together in assembled relation.
Furniture angle braces are commonly used to secure side apron rails and legs together in the manufacture of piano benches, tables and other articles of furniture. My U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,186 presents the best known example of such a brace and provides and assures proper angular and planar self-alignment of the parts of the joint in which it is used, permits preassembly of side members and brace before introduction of the leg and its screw into the assembly for the inherent advantages thereof as well as allowing knocked-down shipment for later unskilled assembly of legs, and rigidifies the completed joint against possible wobbling in any direction.
However, angle braces of the general type as well as the particular type disclosed in my aforementioned patent have typically used hanger bolts as the tensile member for tightening and securing the furniture joint. Such hanger bolts have threaded ends that are seated in the furniture leg, after which a standard nut may be run on the straight threaded end of the hanger bolt to secure the joint. In order to prevent splitting or tearing of the leg, and to provide sufficient thread engagement in the wood to prevent pulling the hanger bolt therefrom, It has been necessary to use legs somewhat larger in cross-sectional size than would otherwise be necessary for the strength of the furniture. Also, there is always some danger of misaligned bolt installation in the leg by unskilled labor. Further disadvantages are the inherently more laborious procedure of installing wood screw threads into a predrilled, but still tight, hole, and the need for a special adapter such as an acorn nut for driving a hanger bolt into the wood leg.
In contrast to the prior art, the attachment bracket of the present invention provides a pleasing, finished appearance, allows use of a standard headed bolt installed through a predrilled clearance hole in the leg, and allows tightening of the joint to utilize the full strength of the angle brace without danger of damage to the leg. Since the attachment bracket tends to compress the leg, without any tendency to split, tear, or pull through the leg, the leg may be made somewhat smaller than in the typical prior art construction, with resultant savings of material without danger of damaged goods. Assembly of the leg to the normally pre-assembled side rails and angle braces is simple and may be done by the customer in his home, rather than by the seller, with resultant savings to all. If at some later date the joint loosens through abuse or changing atmospheric conditions, the owner may easily retighten the joint without danger of damage to the leg.